Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

Emma is a normal girl. She has a few secrets that she doesn't really want anyone to know i.e. that she's told her boyfriend she's a size 8 whereas in fact she is a size 12. She's lied about her Maths grade on her CV and she lost her virginity in the spare bedroom while her parents were downstairs watching Ben Hur...

Emma is on her way home from a business meeting in Scotland when she finds herself on a plane that's going through some severe turbulence. Having had a horrible day she filled up on drinks in the lounge and is therefore not quite sober. Terrified that she's on her way to die with all her secrets she spills them all to the man sitting next to her. This is a man she'll never see again - or so she thought...

I read this book while travelling and I was laughing out loud which made the other passengers look at me strangely before boarding - was I a nutter? Would I perhaps do something weird on the flight? Well, no I'm not a nutter and I had no plans of doing anything strange while flying. This book was just so perfectly funny and I had to bite my lip to try and stifle the tummy roaring laugh that was trying to escape through my lips... I had sore tummy muscles once I'd finished it. But it's not just funny ha ha, you also feel with Emma as she struggles with co-workers and a cousin who's always trying to put her down. You feel for her in her weak and sad moments as well as you laugh with/at her in the hilarious parts. She's a great person and one you wouldn't mind knowing because she is just like you and me, the only thing is that she goes through all the stuff we pray won't happen to us....

I love it!

Pest Control by Bill Fitzhugh

Professional Exterminator - fifteen years of experience! Lethal new concept! Leaves no trace!

Well, that's the ad Bob Dillon put in the newspaper after he'd quit his job as a pest controller for a firm whose ethics he disagrees with. Dillon wants to use a natural way to control the bugs and he is passionate about it. The only thing is that his ad is misinterpreted by people who want to get rid of inconvenient people. They think Bob Dillon is a top assassin and despite his reassurances that he is not he becomes the focus of an investigation as well as "proper" assassins who want to check out the new competition. And, when his supposed targets actually die, then they all are certain that Dillon is the new master assassin, leaving to trace behind. A family member of one of those "targets" puts a price on Dillon's head and the hunt is on.

It was hilariously funny and I really enjoyed reading it. The book doesn't just give you an entertaining story, it also gives you lessons on various bugs and their traits which in any other book would have been boring but it works really well here. You do get attached to Bob Dillon as he's a normal guy who just happens to be misinterpreted and he's got a big portion of good luck on his side which is needed when you're up against the top assassins of the world as well as the CIA. I found the book in a 2nd hand book store and I'm really glad I picked it up, it was a bargain at £1.50!

Death Dance by Linda Fairstein

Natalya Galinova is a prima ballerina and has a temper to match it. She is also at the end of her career as ballet is ruthless on bodies and most lead parts are really supposed to be young women which Galinova isn't anymore. She disappears during a performance and is later found dead at the same theather and it's clearly a result of foul play.

Alexandra Cooper, Assistant DA, gets involved with the investigation together with her friend and NYPD detective Mike Chapman. They both have their demons to fight and have to do so while trying to solve the case.

I liked reading this book as Cooper had to juggle other cases at the same time which is something that you'd have to do in real life. A lot of crime novels seem to forget that very few people have the luxury to spend all their working time on one case only and putting everything else on hold. This is the first book by Fairstein and I will read the others if I come across them but I won't go out of my way to find them, if you know what I mean. The language is not different from any other crime novel and there's nothing that really sets it apart from books in the same genre. It's not bad at all but I see a risk of it being just another, fairly anonymous, book on the "Crime" shelf.

Driving Force by Dick Francis

Ex jockey Freddie Croft has not entirely left the racing scene as he now owns and operates a transport company that takes horses from their stables to various races. He's a fair guy and that's how he wants his drivers to be as well. One day two of his drivers break one of the fundamental rule - they pick up a hitch-hiker. This could have been uneventful if it wasn't for the fact that the guy dies during the ride. That's no good and whether he wants to or not Freddie gets involved in the murkier side of racing and being as stubborn as you have to be as a jockey means that he won't back off until he's figured out what's going on and comes up as a winner. But his opponents are not in the mood for losing and will not stop at murder to get their own way.

I'm a sucker for horses and crime and imagine the joy when I finally discovered the likes of Dick Francis, John Francome etc! Dick Francis is the master and it seems as if he's got an endless supply of books as everytime I go to a 2nd hand book store I always manage to find yet another Francis' Book! Bliss on a shelf!

Driving Force is one of the better books by Francis' and as always brilliantly executed and not without surprises which is always nice as a lot of times the "twists" no longer "twists" but expected if you've read several books in the same genre... I'd definitely recommend Driving Force to anyone who'd fancy a go at a Dick Francis' book!

A Tangled Summer by Caroline Kington

It's about a farming family struggling to keep their farm after the oh so early death of their skirt-chasing father. Well, the eldest son is mostly thinking about motorcycles and women rather than farming - although he he's a better tractor driver than his brother. The brother is a shy 30-something virgin, the sister is a typical teenager sneaking out in the middle of the night, the mother is being eyed up by the vet while the grandmother is the only one with a sex life. Granny decides to give the boys an ultimatum, they'll either find themselves a wife (each, obviously) before the year is up or she'll sell the farm and their [nasty] neighbours are trying to buy their land to start a stud so they can get into one of the glossy country home magazines...

Yup, there you have it. Struggling friendly village people against the nasty city-cum-country-folks-with-shed loads-of-money. How on earth will they ever find a way out? *sarcasm*

Could have been fun. Could have been charming with the country life etc. but there's no life in the characters and if they're built on real life events - well, then I'm happy not to know such horrifically dull and unimaginative people!

I looked it up on amazon.com and was surprised with the voting as it got 5 stars (!?) but then I noticed that only 7 people had voted... You really should be able to return books if they are of "unsatisfactory quality"!

Don't bother.

Relentless by Simon Kernick

It's a normal weekend and you're in the garden when an old friend call you. He's in distress, telling you he's in deep trouble and you've got to help him. All of a sudden he's interrupted by some people and you hear your friend reveal your name and address before being killed. What do you do? Well, you toss the kids into the car to take them to a safe place. But it's really too late. The baddies know where you live, they know how to get to you and since they, in their pursuit, make you a suspect for murdering your wife's colleague you have little chance but to try and sort it out yourself.

It's summertime so it's inevitable that book stores have filled shelf upon shelf with crime-novels. I'd not heard of this book before picking it up and to be honest I only did it to get up to three books in the "3 for 2" deal that was on. But it was definitely a winner! I have rarely connected so immediately with a character. Sure. I'm not a guy, I'm not married to a woman (I'm not married at all), I don't have kids, I doubt a friend would call me up to ask for help in the midst of being murdered. But still, I connected because the main guy is a normal guy and not some hot-shot cop who drink a wee bit too much, who's been hurt in a previous relationship and with acanningly accurate sense for crime and murder. This guy is an Everyday-Joe and it could be you!

Relentless is exactly what its title says - relentless in it's pace and the panic you feel as the character is trying everything to stay ahead of the bad guys, trying to protect his family and staying alive while doing so. The book never slows down, there's not a page that's not grabbing you by the hand to pull you along. You can't wait to find out what happens next but at the same time you don't want to in fear of finding something that makes the character having to struggle even more...

I'm definitely getting my hands on another of Kernick's books. The only bad thing is that my expectations are sky-high and that's not always a good position to start from...

Holding Out by Anne O. Faulk

Holding Out is a modern tale of Lysistrata, the woman who called for a ban of sex amongst the women who were tired of losing their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons in a war that never seemed to end. Obviously they won as the men got all confused and didn't know what to do when they couldn't get "some". Anyway, I'll quote the back on what it's about:

What do you suppose would happen if a bold, successful female executive called upon the nation's women to withhold sex until a politically prominent wife abuser was brought to justice? It would rock the country - and her life - that's what!

So, there you have it. That's what it's about. And it was actually pretty good - after about 250 pages. 250 pages out of 472 of mere thinking "get on with it for fug's sake!". On page 253 I was enjoying it. But a less patient person might not have lasted that long and to be fair I can skim-read better than most and I don't feel as if I missed out on much the first half of the book.

My conclusion is that it's a pretty ok book and cleverly thought out using Lysistrata as a starting point and the funny thing is that I'm sure it'd work if anyone got it started. I know for a fact that it works on a micro-society level i.e. in me and my Boyfriend's relationship although I don't ask for too much - only a lot of backscratching, and the occasional handbag. A girl has got to have priorities...

I just finished reading it. I'll think about it but it's not a book I'll want to read again. Read it if you want to. Skip the 1st half and live better for it.

Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen

Nature Girl is about a woman who doesn't take the adequate medicine and therefore tends to go off on one whatever it may be. In the beginning of the book we learn that Honey Santana has just lost her job for losing her temper with her fiddely boss and subsequently hit him in the family jewels with a wooden mallet (used for cracking stone-crab claws with). You can't help yourself from liking a woman who doesn't just turn around and bitch slap the jerk but she properly whacks him as if she had an ass-hard piñata in front of her. And as if that isn't enough she is later in the day called up by a telemarketer guy (and we know how horribly annoying they can be) and as he interrupts her dinner she decides to do a bit of revenge by flying him down to Florida in pretence of him winning a free trip and there take him out to the swamp and teach him a lesson. Obviously things won't be as straight forward as that as they encounter several characters on their way in the swamp such as Sammy Tigertail, a blue eyed Seminole, who is making himself scarce after a tourist dies on him (heart attack) and the college student who forces Tigertail to take her hostage after encountering him in the swamp and that's just to get away from her rotten boyfriend...

This isn't the first book I've read by Mr Hiaasen and every time I do read one I think to myself: "Am I going to get another one? No, probably not." And then I go out and buy another book by him.There's something I can't really put my finger on with Hiaasen's books. It's almost a love/hate kind of relationship. I find them funny but not in the same way as some critics do -apparently they're rolling around on the floor whilst reading. I don't do that but still I am fantastically intrigued by the characters and plots. I once watched an episode of CBS 60 minutes where they interviewed Hiaasen and apparently he rips out [and saves] tiny articles about people and their ongoings to put to use at some point in his writing. It's a brilliant idea and that's probably why the characters are so kooky but enchantingly real. I for one would be a perfect character in a Hiaasen book and that says it all.

I do recommend reading C. Hiaasen's books. You don't need to read them in a specific order but some characters appear in several books. I started with Skinny Dip and that was a great book and perhaps a bit better than Nature Girl.

Notice

I have read a lot more books than what will ever be mentioned here... I'll just start somewhere in the middle and hopefully continue all the way until the end 'cos I know I won't stop reading until I - well, stop and then it'll be f o r e v e r !